There is a lot to like about the Kansas City Chiefs' 4-0 start to the 2026 season. The offense has been among the league's best, averaging nearly 30 points per game, behind a truly groundbreaking rushing attack led by Kenneth Walker III. Patrick Mahomes is playing some of the best football of his career, now just 10 months removed from major reconstructive knee surgery. And the defense has made the big plays when it matters, many of them coming from a bevy of young ascending players.
One of those defensive talents has been fourth-year man Felix Anudike Uzomah, who has truly flourished through four games. The much-maligned 2023 first-round pick came into this season having played an average of just 25 percent of the snaps and having missed all of last year with a hamstring injury.
But through the first quarter of the Chiefs season, FAU has been a legit difference -making presence along the defensive line. The former K-State Wildcat ranks a more than respectable 35th out of 110 qualifying edge rushers with a 71.1 overall grade on PFF.
Moreover, he has stuffed the stat sheet thus far with one sack, 8 pressures, 4 QB hits, and 5 total tackles (2 TFL), as well as a forced fumble. It's a contract year for FAU, after the Chiefs rightly declined his fifth-year option. And while he is set to be a free agent after this season, there is very little holding the Chiefs back from awarding him a one-or two-year extension that keeps him around at a discounted price.
FAU's strong start to the 2026 season could put KC in a position to keep the former first-round pick around
What makes FAU even more valuable is that he has shown an increasingly impressive ability to be versatile along the d-line, with some of his best snaps coming from rushing the passer from inside at defensive tackle, rather than from the edge. In fact, he ranks among the league's best so far this year in terms of pressure percentage.
FAU👀👀 https://t.co/8ZpxhIPbZe
— Daniel Harms (@InHarmsWay19) October 8, 2026
At 6'4" and nearly 260 lbs, Anudike-Uzomah's ways of winning a pass-rush rep varied a lot in college, and that carried into the pros. At times, he would win with speed and burst, but other times, he would push the pocket with pure strength and force. It put Steve Spagnuolo in a weird spot with FAU for the first couple of years of his career, because he did not necessarily know when to put him on the field, who to put him up against, and if he could consistently put together solid snaps.
But now, FAU, when moved inside, has the advantage of above-average speed for a DT, with a leaner and quicker frame, while still utilizing his strength. So far, the position change has clearly worked. And with the Chiefs having two guys in George Karlaftis and R Mason Thomas who are pure edge rushers, it allows FAU to be a bit of a tweener and force disruption in a multitude of ways.
The big thing for him is to keep stacking good games. And who knows. It may behoove the Chiefs to award him a nice little paycheck around two years, $14 million, if he keeps playing like this.
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